US broadband plan falls into chaos

America could sink into a broadband dark age after a US court decided that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has no right to stop carriers from developing a two tier Internet.

The court case was bought by Comcast, which objected to the FCC telling it that it could not throttle bittorrent traffic.

Much of the US broadband plan is dependant on having a free and open Internet where everyone is treated equally.

The court ruling has stunned broadband campaigners who see it as placing the FCC's broadband plan under threat. Derek Turner of the Free Press, a nonpartisan organisation that campaigns for universal access to communications, said the consequences of this decision are far reaching and it has forced the FCC into an existential crisis.

If the FCC cannot protect consumers from Internet service providers (ISPs) then it will be unable to implement the national broadband plan, which is clearly on life support as a result of the court's ruling. The aim is to provide every American in the country with high speed Internet access by 2020.